Administration Eases Rules for Obamacare Coverage Subsidies

They won't be checking on employer-provided insurance in 16 states and D.C.

Under the law, those seeking subsidies are supposed to have incomes no higher than 400 percent of the federal poverty line. Further, they can't have access to affordable insurance through their jobs.

The administration looked to the newly created "exchanges"—a blend of federal- and-state run insurance marketplaces—to verify those facts. Originally, the administration wanted to launch random checks to verify whether applicants got insurance through their jobs, and to individually verify everyone's income level.

But Reuters reports that the new rules released on Friday will give 16 states—as well as the District of Columbia—a pass for now on the employer-insurance verification. For those states, which are launching their own exchanges, the federal government will give them until 2015 to start random checks. The exchanges themselves launch at the beginning of 2014.